Hide History

Background information

Birth name:Hideto Matsumoto
Also known as:hide,HIDE
Born:December 13,1964
Yokosuka,Kanagawa,Japan
Deceased:May 2,1998 (aged 33)Minami-Azabu,Minato,Tokyo,Japan Graduated from:Zushi Kogeni High School.Hollywood Beauty College
Genres:Rock,Alternative rock,Pop Rock,Hard Rock,heavy metal,industrial rock Occupation(s):Musician singer,songwriter,record producer
Instruments:Vocals,guitars,bass
Years active:1981-1998
Labels:MCA VictorUniversalLEMONed
Associated acts:X Japan/Zilch/M*A*S*S


Introduction
The first work after joining X JAPAN was live at "Yashiro Cafeteria”,which held the planning of "Genius·Takey cheerful TV!!".In April 1989,major debut as an X guitarist with the album "BLUE BLOOD".In X, in addition to being the guitarist, he was also in charge of the entire visuals of the band,including setting members hair style.Although YOSHIKI was the one who mainly does the songwriting and composition in the X,HIDE was also responsible for lyrics and composition for some songs.
While busy with the activities at X,on January 21,1993, hide,with Inoran and Jun of Luna Sea, under the band name MxAxSxS, released the omnibus album Dance 2 Noise 004.And on August 5 of the same year,two singles "EYES LOVE YOU"," 50%&50%”were released as solo debut.On September 29th,ZI:KILL's TUSK and video work"Seth et Holth"were announced.
In February 1994,hide released the first solo album "HIDE YOUR FACE".The mask of the jacket is designed by H·R·Giagar which is known for movie "alien" etc.Also,the first solo tour was held from March to April of the same year.
In 1996,hide launched the label"LEMONed"(lemonade),with the purpose of make the songs and existence of the amateur band ZEPPET STORE known to the public.Hide published the label by releasing the omnibus album and video of the same title on May 22nd.In addition, he started solo album production in June and released 2nd album"PSYENCE"on September 2.
In September 1997,due to withdrawal from TOSHI,the breakup of X JAPAN was announced.X broke up at"THE LAST LIVE"on December 31.On January 1,1998, the next day, a full page advertisement on Asahi Newspaper as hide with Spread Beaver was posted.On January 28th, hide released a single"ROCKET DIVE”.
About 7:30 am on May 2,1998,hide was found unconscious,by his fiancee, hanged by a towel tied to a doorknob in his apartment,where the couple lived together.Hide was taken to a hospital.Hide passed away at the age of 33
And became a legend.There was a rumour that fans committed copycat suicide after the tragedy.
On May 5,300 people were gathered and a private funeral was held.On May 6th, a wake ceremony,and a farewell ceremony was held on May 7th.Many fans came offering flowers.In the farewell ceremony,members of X JAPAN including TOSHI and TAIJI,as well as hide’s friends from the music industry attended.The farewell ceremony was broadcast live on TV.



Equipment

Guitars used

MG-X
Hide loved the Mockingbird model MG-X made by Fernandez (Burny) for many years since the amateur era before X.There are many various designs,but lets talk about the representative ones.By the way,the replica model (price of 80,000 yen to 450,000 yen) of the guitar used by hide is released from Fernandez Company (mostly finished production).As an artist model,he showed an unprecedented phenomenal sale in the past, both before and after his passing,and it also shows the popularity and influence of guitarist hide.

FERNANDES MG-X “Paint"
Based on the black body hide himself painted in POSCA.The pickup has a DiMarzio dual sound (now Super Distortion) at the front, and a pickup of EMG 81 on the rear.The monkey pod was used for the body material (neck is maple).It seems that hide himself liked the middle range for its viscosity.A 4-6 string bridge has a back through hole for securing the tension sense of the string.

Burny MG-X "Cherry · sunburst"
Hide owned 1959 made Gibson Les Paul which has excellent specification. Incorporating the structure of Les Paul's maple top + mahogany back, in order to create a through-neck structure similar to other MG-Xs, a mahogany neck is sandwiched from the left and right with a mahogany body back and pasted with maple material on the top. All models produced after this model and lemon drop adopt this Les Paul specification laminate structure. Pickup was a sonator with Fernandez VH-401 developed for him. This specification is a final type of MG-X until his pass despite a few changes, as well as later models "Yellow heart", "Science", "Base".
Several cherry sunbursts including sub are being made. The neck grip of the first guitar is U shape. The thickness of the body was made 5mm thicker than the usual MG, 42 mm. Those fabricated as a sub of the first guitar had a body thickness of 45 mm. Afterwards the paint was refined to white color and used at X JAPAN Live 'White Night' at the end of 1994. After the second one, the neck grip has been changed to V shape.

Burny MG-X "Lemon drop”
Like Cherry · sunburst, it was produced with the based on Gibson Les Paul's sound spec. The body of this lemon drop is made especially thick 45 mm.

Burny MG-X "Yellow Heart”
It became a main guitar later on. It first appeared in Tokyo Dome performance in 1996. Neck · Grip adopts V shape. The one hide used was a model of a red heart pattern on a yellow body produced on the theme of "play the riff of gorogero with a lollipore guitar", mainly used for semitone-lowering tuning such as "red", "DAHLIA". Unlike cherry sunburst, it is said that there is a characteristic that the bass is much stronger because of thick paint of filling. In addition, "Green Heart" was also produced, and was used in regular tuning such as "RUSTY NAIL”.

Burny MG-X “KIBAN” (circuit board)
It was produced at the same time as Green Heart, and was initially planned to be the the main one at LAST LIVE. The circuit board was literally drawn in the green body, and the hide Homepage URL of that time was printed next to the master volume knob. In addition, the ocher-coloured part of the circuit board was painted so that the grain of the body could be seen through, and it was a very detailed colouring. However, during the rehearsal just before the live production took place, it could not be used as the main guitar because of its poor sound due to the body painting process, so the Yellow Heart of set as sub on that day. Hip shot D tuner for 6 string peg, also featured a device which can lower 1 string of 6 strings with one touch.
In addition, there are Yellow Heart, Green Heart, Super Distortion of DiMarzio on the rear of the base, Evolution of DiMaggio at the rear of Science, Prototype etc mounting the JB of Seymour Duncan at the rear, etc. It suggests a state that there has been trial and error.

Others

Gibson Les Paul STANDARD
Hide purchased it mainly for the purpose of recording in 1994. In the past, it was owned by Mick Mars of Motley Crew. The serial number is “90297".two digits are different from PES's own 59th year Les Paul, which was made nearly at the same time. The MG-X after the cherry sunburst was produced based on this guitar. Although it is a very rare and valuable guitar, PATA said that hide, who liked painting and sticking stickers on guitars, stuck a sticker to this guitar as well, and made PATA furious. This guitar was used for almost all recordings, but it has been used only once for the live event (It is used to play "JOKER" together with PATA’s 59 Les Paul at X JAPAN Tokyo Dome performance "X JAPAN RETURNS" on December 31, 1993.).

Martin D-18
Acoustic guitar. Hide used it for making songs at home and recording of acoustic guitar parts. “In order for Hide to play the guitar anytime" , this guitar is stored in the coffin with hide.
Burny H CUSTOM “whale"
When hide played the explorer model made with Korina owned by PATA, he liked that sound so much that he had Fernandes used the same material and made a guitar with the shape of H series, with Tom Holmes PU. H CUSTOM was commonly called killer whale, but hide misunderstood and called it whale. It was mainly used for recording of Ja, Zoo.

Burny HR-195 / REBIRTH
Model based on "whale" as a hide’s original model. Unfortunately, hide passed away the day before the planned meeting date for the final adjustment of this model. After that, the production was continued with the hide MUSEUM. After that, the material has been changed to Honduras · mahogany and only 300 limited edition was released.

FENDER STRATOCASTER JEFF BECK MODEL
FERNANDES JG CUSTOM
Before the tour of PSYENCE A GO GO, hide wanted Fernandez to prepare a guitar other than MG for the tour, a guitar like Eddie Van Halen’s, with only 1 pickup at the rear.
The custom made Fernandez · JG series on the market, with the front pickup removed, a humbucker mounted on the rear (the air zone of DiMarzio was mounted), the control was a simple layout with 1 volume and a clear pickguard attached. By removing the front pickup, the cavity at the front is concering, so Fernandes mounted plugin at the shield and applied illuminaton gimick, as well as dummy wiring. At the end, this guitar turned out with a cyber look.
The production period of this guitar only took 5 days.
Hide himself liked this illumination, and said that it looked like a "training machine”.

Burny H-65 CUSTOM
Strings and picks used
Fernandez HGS - 1200 (hide signature model), before that Arnie Ball Hybrid Slinky Fernandes scanner (hide signature model), Jim Dunlop nylon standard 0.73 mm Pick was used according to the condition of his arms of the day.

Amplifier used
X "Jealousy"
ENGL 2 x 50 TUBE POWER AMP (power amplifier)
ENGL 2 ch Preamp (preamplifier)
T.C. ELECTRONIC TC 2290 (digital delay)
Guyatone FLANGER (Flanger)
BOSS OD-1 (overdrive)
EX-Pro WIRELESS (Wireless)
HIWATT 12×4 SP CABINET W
DEGITECH WHAMMY (Pitch Shifter)
X JAPAN "THE LAST LIVE"
VHT Classic (power amplifier)
SANSAMP (preamplifier)
TONEWORKS (Acoustech Simulator)
DEGITECH GSP-2101 (Preamplifier)
HIWATT CUSTOM HAIWATT 100 (head amplifier)
ENGL SAVAGE 100 (head amplifier)
HIWATT (cabinet)
MARSHALL (cabinet)
DEGITECH WHAMMY 2 (Pitch shifter)
VOX WAH (WOW)




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Singles

Year Data Oricon ranking Sales RIAJ certifications Album included
1993
"Eyes Love You" Released: August 5, 1993 3 247000 Gold
HIDE YOUR FACE
"50% & 50%" Released: August 5, 1993 6 195000 Gold
1994
"Dice" Released: January 21, 1994 6 259000 Gold
"Tell Me" Released: March 24, 1994 4 228000 Gold
1996
"Misery" Released: June 24, 1996 3 213000 Gold
PSYENCE
"Beauty & Stupid" Released: August 12, 1996 4 203000 Gold
"Hi-Ho/Good Bye" Released: December 18, 1996 8 122000
1998
"Rocket Dive" Released: January 28, 1998 4 690000 Platinum
Ja,Zoo
"Pink Spider" Released: May 13, 1998 1 1034000 Million
"Ever Free" Released: May 27, 1998 1 842000 Double Platinum
"Hurry Go Round” Released: October 21, 1998 2 607000 Platinum
2000 "Tell Me" Released: January 19, 2000 2 291000 Gold
hide SINGLES ~Junk Story~
2002 "In Motion" Released: July 10, 2002 4 96000



Studio albums

Year Data Oricon ranking RIAJ certifications
1994 Hide Your Face Released: February 23, 1994 9 Platinum
1996 Psyence Released: September 2, 1996 1 Platinum
1998 Ja, Zoo Released: November 21, 1998 2

Million


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Best Album

Released Date Title Standard product number Remarks
Best Album March 2, 2000 hide BEST ~PSYCHOMMUNITY~ MVCH-29044 Best selected from 3 albums made by hide. HDCD compatible
Singles
July 24, 2002
hide SINGLES ~Junk Story~
UPCH-9036
In addition to all singles released by hide, a single collection with an unreleased song "Junk Story" added. HDCD compatible
UPCH-9035
Best Album April 28, 2004 KING OF PSYBORG ROCK STAR UPCH-1351 In commemoration of the seventh passing anniversary of hide, the best album was recorded based on the "PSYBORG ROCK”, which hide used as a concept before his passing. HDCD compatible
Complete box September 21, 2005 hide PERFECT SINGLE BOX UPCH-9180 Completely ordered products with serial number. The 13 singles of hide from the past were converted to 12 cm, and the hide MUSEUM memorial DVD which was closed on September 25, 2005 was placed in a box.
Limited distribution Best February 8, 2006 hide SINGLES+PSYBORG ROCK iTunes Special!! - Selection produced as the first of hide's iTunes Store music distribution. All singles A side. As well as two songs "In Motion“ and "Junk Story” published after his passing, "DOUBT (MIXED LEMONED JELLY MIX)”, "FLAME (PSYENCE FACTION version)” remix versions, and 20 songs that were added in "MISCAST" self-cover during the times at X, which was difficult to obtain. Currently this single is not longer being pubished, the existence itself has been erased from the discography of the official website.
Request Best
April 29, 2009
We Love hide ~The Best in The World~
UPCH-9473
Selected request best in the vote of the official website.
UPCH-9474
UPCH-1709
Complete Best April 28, 2010 I LOVE hide -Complete Audio Collection- UPEH-9001 13 single singles that have been released so far, 3 original albums, 2 live albums, "Junk Story "," COMMENT (August 10th, 1995) " which were included in "hide SINGLES ~ Junk Story ~", in a total of 120 songs were recorded in a USB memory album. Artwork such as lyrics and jacket photographs were also included as a "Digital booklet".
Soundtrack March 2, 2011 “Musical Number”~ROCK Musical pink spider ~ UPCH-1830 A two-piece album that summarised the songs performed in the rock musical "Pink Spider" that was performed on March 8, 2011, using hide songs.
50th birth anniversary album
December 10, 2014
Co Gal
UPCH-9962(DVD attached)
An album containing an unreleased song “Co Gal" completed by Vocaloid.
UPCH-2004

 

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Remix album

Released Date Title Standard product number Remarks
June 21, 1997 Tune-up hide remixes MVCH-29002 7 teams who performed remix on hide’s songs. 10 songs in total.
May 22, 2002 Psy-clone ~hide electronic remixes~ UUCH-1052 Hide songs are remixed into Trance, techno, house and so on. 8 songs in total.

 

Live Album

Released Date Title Standard product number Remarks
March 19, 2008 PSYENCE A GO GO UPCH-1597 From the second tour "PSYENCE A GO GO", a three piece live album containing performances at Yoyogi National Gymnasium. All song remastering. All 8 + 7 + 7 songs
April 23, 2008 HIDE OUR PSYCHOMMUNITY UPCH-1594 This is a 2 piece live album that fully recorded from the first tour in Yokohama Arena "HIDE OUR PSYCHOMMUNITY ~ Welcome to the room of hide ~" performances. All songs are remastering. Although it is said to be a complete recording, the cover "20 Century Boy" of T · Rex which was demonstrated at encore was not recorded due to copyright reasons. All 10 + 10 songs

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